1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of whipped egg materials, in liquid, gel, dry, frozen or prepackaged format.
2. Background of the Art
Eggs are used in a large number of edible products. They may be used in essentially physically undisturbed form (e.g., cooked within the shell). Cooked without modification when removed from the shell (e.g., poached, fried), lightly mixed with other ingredients (as with batter product preparations) or they may be whipped (yolks and albumin separately or together, with or without additional ingredients, such as sugar in forming meringues). One of the problems with whipped egg products, whether both the yolk and albumin are present or when either one is with another ingredient in the whipped mass, there tends to be separation between the two ingredients.
There is a distinct different between beating whole eggs and egg whites. When whites (the albumin) are whipped by themselves (e.g., without the yolk) or with additives (e.g., sugar), the eggs whites can be whipped into a relatively, but short term stable mass, even or ideally displaying stable peaks in the whipped albumin. There are a number of precautions that can or should be taken to optimize peak formation, such as avoiding the presence of any yolk, avoidance of aluminum bowls and avoidance of wooden bowls.
In whipping whole eggs (yolk and albumin) starch has long been used to attempt to stabilize the product. This is especially done in the formation of custards. The starch is usually dispersed in water or aqueous carriers and then mixed with the whipped eggs and then mixed again with the combined ingredients, then baked or chilled. There are a number of deficiencies in this method, particularly the fact that most starches (e.g., not rice starch) contain glutens. An increasing portion of the population is gluten-intolerant, and there is increasing evidence of the adverse health benefits of modern strains of gluten-containing grains. Additionally, the stability of these combinations tends to evidence itself in the final cooked product and not in the intermediate storable or pre-cooked product.